Can someone please tell me what "Factor the expression" means please.
I don't know what it is and can someone give me an example also?
It means separate into its parts, e.g., 12 = 3*2*2
thx
wlcm
Certainly! "Factoring the expression" means to rewrite the given expression as a product of its factors. In mathematical terms, it involves breaking down an expression into smaller parts that can be multiplied together to obtain the original expression.
Let's take an example to understand this better:
Consider the expression: 2x^2 + 6x
To factor this expression, we look for common factors or patterns in the terms. In this case, we can see that both terms have a common factor of 2x. So, we can factor out the common factor:
2x^2 + 6x = 2x(x + 3)
Here, the factor "2x" is common to both terms, and we are left with (x + 3) inside the parentheses. This is the factored form of the given expression.
Factoring expressions is useful in simplifying and solving equations, finding the roots of quadratic equations, and many other areas of mathematics.